Following last year’s bloodless coup, Thailand’s interim government announced that it would unshackle the media from controls imposed by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as part of its stated mission to “restore democracy.” But new instances of censorship have generated controversy this year.

Following the opening of the inaugural Singapore Biennale in 2006, doubters questioned whether the equatorial city-state was committed to continuing the high-profile international art event or supporting local art infrastructure.

Early in his career, the Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat began “copyrighting” his work, signing his canvases with a dated, encircled “c” alongside the titles and a varying combination of his initials and name.

With his 1998 move to New York, Zhang Huan became a standard-bearer for China’s contemporary art awakening. China’s past and present realities reverberated through images that were—for a Western audience hungry for insight—abstract yet legible, conceptually nuanced yet physically compelling.